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Monday 19 December 2016

Paperboy

The first paperboy is said to have been 10-year-old Barney Flaherty, who was hired by the New York Sun on September 4, 1833 to deliver newspapers. Barney had responded to an advert in the newspaper, which read "To the Unemployed a number of steady men can find employment by vending this paper."

The Oxford Dictionary gives the earliest use of the word 'paperboy' in 1876 and 'papergirl' in 1937.

A paperboy for the Toronto Star in Whitby, Ontario, Canada, 1940.

The Newsboys' Strike of 1899 lasted two weeks and forced US newspaper proprietors to pay their newsboys more. Until then, newsboys bought papers from the publishers and had to resell them to make money.

In 1986 an arcade game called Paperboy was released in which the players take the role of a paperboy who delivers a fictional newspaper called "The Daily Sun" along a suburban street on his bicycle. It was the first Nintendo Entertainment System game created in the U.S.A.

North American sales flyer for the arcade game.

Under UK law, a paperboy or papergirl should not start work before 7am. Also a child can be legally employed as a paperboy only at the age of 13 or above.

The laws of the United States provide that "Minors employed in the delivery of newspapers to consumers are exempt from Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) child labor provisions, as well as the wage and hours provisions."

The greatest strain on paperboys is thought to have been the 1,612-page Sunday New York Times of September 13, 1987, weighing 12lb.

Source Daily Express

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